... there 's a gazillion jobs out there that are based on nothing when it comes to life. They 're based on something for business. They make you money, blah-blah-blah. But let 's hip-check our structure a little bit. Let 's knock out our government. Let 's take away hydro for a while. Let 's have an atom-bomb hit or something. Well, okay. Like I 'd say nine-tenths of people out there, what you know is useless, absolutely useless. If you have to now fend for yourself, what do you know? Nothing. Nothing.

I- I just- I hate computers. Use them as little as- as I can. Um, I work with food or even D- J-ing, you-know, I work with music. Take away hydro. Well, I can get some coconut shells or I can 'bong-bong-bong' (drum taps). You-know-what-I-mean? There 's still something there.

She always used the dryer. ... I know what she was using a day in- she was using: about forty-three kilowatt-hours- kilowatts a day. In a- in hydro. Yeah, so I mean, rather high but not ignorantly high, because I got- because after the- okay?

Geez we better do something. You-know, we gotta do something in a hurry type-of-thing. We can 't let them freeze. I says, "Well, the hydro 's still on. You can- you-know, type-of-thing. Live on electricity for a while, type-of-thing until we- until we get this one." So sure- I- I race up there and I go, "Okay, where do I- now I 'm up here, where do I buy a furnace?"

... I'm the oldest, and so we got to go to my grandfather's cottage- ... Up in Muskoka, up by Huntsville. Now it didn't have any hydro and it didn't have any running water, but it was a real cottage and that- so that was in the thirties that we went up there. And uh we never had power.

Well we've got the cottage on Eugenia-Lake near Flescherton. It's a- it's a hydro - made property that a large reservoir of water for making power, O- P-G now controls it, used to be Ontario-Hydro.

It's like Christmas mor-- 'cause when I- when I first got married, my kids started coming along, I says "(inc) open their Christmas presents." And my wife goes "No. We don't open them 'til Christmas morning." I go "Well at my house we open them up Christmas-Eve after midnight." Anytime after midnight. "No. Not here we don't."

And they- I- I listened to them and they were so talented. And I just- I just fell in love. And they asked me, "What are you looking at?" And I says, "I like- I like your music." I told them I played. And they says, "You want a job?" So I started playing jazz with them and they were virtuosos. They were really great musicians. Perfect pitch.

I liked law. So I said, "I want to take law." And the teacher that was giving law ah wasn't thrilled about me coming back. She had me for math and keyboarding and she wasn't- she said, "I don't give away any quarters." And I says, "Hey, I'm here to earn them." And she was so thrilled with ah- Anyhow, she gave me the Social-Science prize. Aced the course.

And I spent an hour with him until he was ready to go and then we walked out onto Chuter-Street and he said, "Is there- you see a cab? Is there a cab around, Bob?" And I says, "There's one down the street." And he walked right up to the cab and opened the door. He could hear the engine running and you just- how many steps to take to open that door. It just- I didn't believe he was blind. Yeah, it's amazing.

Speaker: And then he says, "Do you see my- my- my girl?" And I says, "The- the Raylettes? Mae? Mae?" Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: And I says, "The-- they're all down the street." And he says, "Mae!" And then she came and got in the cab, and then they left.

So my cousin offered me- my- Brook's father offered me a job. This when I started with him. And he offered me eighty dollars a week. So- so I- now I'm in the big-time. And I says, "Okay." And I went and did that job and I told the- the- the guy, "I'm ah not going to be here. I'm- I'm gonna sub-out the job. I got a drummer for you."

You can't do that. I'll take it to the union. And I says, "Well, wait a minute." I said, "Maybe I should tell the union that you don't pay- you're not paying- you're paying me forty dollars a week instead of scale."

Speaker: Yeah, I played at the Holiday-Tavern which is the-Phoenix today. Interviewer: Okay. Okay. Speaker: I played there. And ah when I went back, I says- I went back to him and I says, "I'm ready to start my job again." And he looked at me and he says, "I think I'll keep this guy." So I says, "Fine." So I left and the very next week, my pay went up to a-hundred-and-thirty-five dollars.

Yeah. Yeah. And ah you-know, he said- he invited me to the party and I says, "Well, you- know-." And he says it was out in Brampton and I lived in Brampton.

Finally, she says, "It's Katie." And ah so I says, "Give her my number." And she called and she invited me over for a- a glass of wine and- and a piece of her cheesecake and a fire-- a fireplace. And I- I- I'd been by myself for about four or five years. I was a bach.

So of course you're child is- is gonna use that language. That's what you're teaching your kid." And I was so put off by it ... I went in and I told Rhonda. I says, "Rhonda, there's a parent out there who's using language that-" I- I've never heard that expression Interviewer: (Laughs) neither have I! Speaker: Right? I says "It's using language that I- saying things I've never even heard of" and I says, "I think somebody needs to talk to him" 'cause you-know I mean it's bad enough you get the kids mouthing off like that, now you got parents coming out and yelling and calling kids names that- Like oh-my-goodness! Like who does that?

So I looked at him and I says, "Well I don't know that came from, but the bank won't do it." "My country" (disapproving sound) They already know when they get here- before they get here what it is that they're entitled to and how they have to go about getting it.

He kept- somebody hollers, "Let him go, let him go, you're choking him!" And I says, "I can't let him go. I gotta hang on to him."

Interviewer: Do you remember something he did that he got the strap for? Speaker: No, he was just a bad mouth, I was afraid of him. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: Uh-huh. I met him one day, one time years later, he said "You never did like me, did you?" and I says "I was afraid of you!" (laughs)